Another day at Sickbay
by ScarletInkQuill
Summary: McCoy stopped for a second to breathe. The Enterprise was under attack and the amount of casualties coming in was too big for even him to handle, let alone the team of new and inexperienced novices he had been assigned to train.
1. The Beginning

McCoy stopped for a second to breathe. The amount of casualties coming in was too big for even him to handle, let alone the team of new and inexperienced novices he had been assigned to train. This would be their test. The real world test that would make them decide wether they wanted to continue on the job, or if they wanted to give up entirely and stay with their feet on solid ground.

There didn't seem to be enough helping hands, enough doctors assisting, or enough stretchers for that matter. McCoy feared that he himself might end up in one of the stretchers nearby.

"Doctor McCoy! Doctor McCoy!" One of the novice boys was trying to get his attention. As soon as he looked at him he asked. "Where should I put this one? We're running out of space!"

McCoy walked the small distance that took them apart and looked at the man lying on the stretcher that the boy had brought in and he saw a familiar face. A face that wasn't supposed to be there in the first place.

"They got to the bridge, sir." The boy said, spotting worry and recognition on the older doctor's face. The yellow shirt and the Asian features of the man's face left no doubt about his identity - the young man on the stretcher was Hikaru Sulu.

It shouldn't be like this, McCoy thought. He was too young. He wasn't by far the youngest member on the ship, but he was too young nonetheless to be wounded in such an attack.

"Sir!" Another voice requiring his attention. Another blood stained yellow shirt entering sickbay. When McCoy looked at the occupant of the second stretcher his blood seemed to freeze inside his veins. It definitely shouldn't be like this. Dry blood covered young Slavic features. Sulu seemed to trigger something in him that he did not know, and the sight of Pavel Chekov, the young and always optimistic kid, laying still on a stretcher made it even worse.

And suddenly his professional side kicked in, not letting his emotional side take too much space. Emotions had to be dealt with later. He quickly found some space for the two boys to be put waiting for a treatment and he looked at both of the bodies with the eyes of a doctor. Pavel Chekov, head wound, broken ribs, broken arm, maybe a leg, nothing else serious. Hikaru Sulu, bruised forehead, broken wrist. He had much less injuries than Chekov though... McCoy didn't really know why.

He grabbed Chekov's right arm. By the way it jumped out of place, McCoy could tell almost immediately that the kid had dislocated his shoulder. He looked at Sulu again. It was almost as if Chekov had stretched himself in front of the young helmsman in a protective maneuver and taken most of the damage. And knowing the brotherly friendship the two of them shared, McCoy could be almost certain that that was in fact what had happened.

He let out a small breath. The boys would be alright, but knowing them as he knew, he was almost sure that Sulu would be mad at the young Russian navigator as soon as he knew what happened. With the thought in his mind, he allowed a small smile to play on his lips

_They got to the bridge, sir._ The sentence the novice had said earlier played on McCoy's mind and wondered if Jim was alright.


	2. Shots Fired

**Hello everyone!**

**First of all thank you so much for your wonderful reviews! I really appreciated them, and I am really glad you liked what you read. To be honest I didn't expect it to have the response it had! So thank you all once again for taking some of your time to read it.**

**Originally this was supposed to be only a one-shot (I know I didn't state that in the summary, so I apologize for that) but after reading your reviews I thought that maybe I could pull something bigger out of the original idea and decided to try it out, so here is the follow up chapter to the initial scene. I really hope that it won't disappoint you.**

**On a last note, a special thanks to the guest who reviewed. Your review was the one that really made up my mind on whether I should or should not continue writing this story. Thank you! :)**

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McCoy looked around. The place was a mess. More people were coming in, most of them with light injuries, fewer of them with more serious wounds and there were those that came in having already succumbed to whatever damage the attack had inflicted on their bodies.

"Doctor McCoy! Doctor McCoy!" He turned around yet again to see two of his trainees carrying a body. There were no more stretchers available and McCoy wished they would stop asking him so many questions. It was a crisis Goddammit, and they had had many years of medschool. It wasn't as if they didn't know what they were doing.

"There are no more stretchers left. Sit her there." He pointed to an empty space near the wall between two occupied stretchers. McCoy recognized the unconscious body the two young men were carrying as one of the analysts working near Uhura's station. "I'm talking to nurse Chapel. We'll have to take people with less serious injuries off the stretchers and assign them to those who need them the most." The novices nodded and complied.

McCoy wanted so badly to get out of there. To run to the bridge and to see how Jim was. In a positive note, his body hadn't turned up among his patients, which was good, and besides he had Spock and Uhura to take care of him. Bearing that thought in mind his mood lightened a bit as he searched for nurse Chapel.

"Chapel!" He called out as he spotted her by one of the patients that had been lucky enough to lie in a biobed. She looked at him. "Can I speak to you for a moment?" He asked. He saw her talking to another nurse who then carried away with the work.

"Doctor." She said as she reached him.

"Christine, there are no more stretchers left... Organize a group of people to start taking those with smaller and less dangerous wounds from the stretchers to give space to the ones that really need them. If you see anyone with a small injury that is easily fixable ask one of the novices to do it and start sending people away."

As nurse Chapel was opening her mouth to reply, the ground trembled. McCoy was lurched forward and fell to the ground. Panic was installed amidst the sickbay staff and patients. The noise was too loud, and people were screaming and running through the stretchers. As he got up, McCoy could clearly distinguish between the screaming and shouting someone saying that they were being hit. But why? If they had gotten to the bridge, as it sure looked like, they had no reason to fire on the ship. Christine Chapel was getting up too and McCoy offered her a helping hand.

"I'll do my best Doctor." She shouted her reply, trying to be heard above the noise. And then she ran off.

"Leonard!" And now, McCoy knew the voice calling his name. Blood froze inside his veins yet once again.

He turned just in time to see Lieutenant Uhura passing through the turbo lift's doors, semi-carrying semi-dragging an unconscious figure in her arms.

"Goddammit!" McCoy swore under his breath and ran to help her. The blue color of the man's shirt and the green shade of the skin beneath it revealing immediately who it was that Uhura was carrying.

He helped her carrying Spock's unconscious body to one of the already unoccupied stretchers nearby. He quickly checked his vital signs. Spock had most certainly taken a blow to the head, given the green liquid that stained his forehead. He was not dead though. Only unconscious. Thank God for that.

"Nurse!" McCoy called out so that someone could take care of Spock. "What happened?" He asked Uhura, clenching his hands on the sides of the stretcher to avoid falling, as the ground shook again.

"They got to the bridge!" She said. Her hand quickly grabbing the doctor's arm for support.

"Yes, I can see that!" McCoy said. His tone slightly more irritated than usual.

"I don't know what they want!" Uhura said as loudly as she could because of the noise around them. "They beamed themselves up as soon as they crushed our shields!" Her voice was getting more and more anxious and McCoy asked himself if it hadn't been better to simply let her rest a bit before asking anything. But the truth was, they were under attack and there was no time to rest. "They started to shoot people." She continued. "They tried to hit Chekov because he refused to set the course they wanted. And they ended up hitting Sulu instead but-" her voice trailed off.

"Yes, I know. Chekov just jumped in front of it." Uhura nodded, taking glances at Spock's body, lying unconscious on the stretcher, where a nurse as already cleaning the open wound. "I have them both taken care of. They will be alright."

"Thank goodness!" She said. She worried about their young navigator as much as anyone on the bridge.

"How's Jim?" McCoy finally let out the question that was worrying the most, in what he thought to be the most casual tone he could manage.

"He was holding up when I managed to run off with Spock. As he lost his conscience, Jim signaled me to take Spock here and worn you. They won't let us use our comms." McCoy nodded.

"Sit here for a minute if you wan-" He was saying when she cut him off.

"No! I know Spock will be taken good care of, here. And Jim needs me up on the bridge. He needs everyone he can get."

But as McCoy was opening his lips to reply the ships comms sprang to life.

_Hello Enterprise! _A male voice made its way out of the speakers. _As all of you may have noticed by now, your ship is under attack. And due to the stubbornness of your captain in not surrender his ship, we will take him aboard ours so that we can negotiate some terms. In the meantime, please stay at your current stations. I will let some of my people to patrol the corridors and maintain order. See you soon._

McCoy's blood froze. It was the third time happening today, if he remembered correctly, and he wondered how many more times it would happen. He looked at Uhura who had a worried expression on her face.

"What ship was it?" He asked.

"I don't know." Uhura replied. "It seems to be some weird kind of pirate ship... I had never seen their species in my life. Nor do I know what power they hold."

"I any case, we need to get to take Jim from their ship. Something tells me that they are not taking him to negotiate terms. And Jim wouldn't go out without a struggle."


	3. Getting Scotty

McCoy returned to take care of the patients. Images of Jim beaten to a pulp, bleeding, dying or already dead flooded his thoughts. His desire to get out and beam down to the enemy ship to rescue his captain was starting to be too difficult to control. He couldn't leave his patients there though, so he could only hope for the best.

"Are you alright, Leonard?" The sudden touch of a hand on his shoulder woke him up from his trance. It was Christine Chapel and he realized now that he had been standing by Chekov's body, tricorder hovering in the same position for at least five minutes.

"I'm fine." He said. But judging by the nurse's face his tone hadn't been very convincing.

"Go. I'll take care of him." She said, looking at Chekov with a somehow maternal smile.

He nodded absentmindedly looking at Spock, unconscious in his stretcher. Uhura sat by his side, holding one of his hands. He had done everything he could and Spock was now out of danger but he needed to rest so he was under the effect of a mild sedative, McCoy had given him.

The sound of the sickbay doors opening filled the heavy silence installed in the room. McCoy turned to look.

A group of six heavily armored humanoid figures crossed the turbo lift doors into the sickbay standing there in what was clearly a military formation.

"Please, carry on with your duties Earth people." The one that was clearly the leader spoke in a deep voice. And then turned to the other members of the formation and spoke in a language McCoy didn't understand. He looked at Uhura and she shook her head confirming his suspicions. She didn't understand it either. They were exploring uncharted territory, meaning that no Earth ship had ever been in the quadrant they were in. McCoy sighed. They were dealing with an alien species completely new to them.

McCoy walked over to Spock and Uhura.

"We need to get to the bridge…" McCoy whispered to her.

"You can't just leave your duties here… You're the CMO Leonard!"

McCoy shook his head. He was aware of that fact. But he was also aware that if no one did anything they would most likely end up killed. And the truth was that most of the people on the ship seemed to be on sickbay. The bridge crew was certainly all there even if not dead, but unconscious. And he knew that he was one of the few people who could save Jim.

"I have lots of trusted personnel here. I'll put Doctor Roberts in charge. Look, Spock is down, Sulu is down, even Chekov is down, goddammit!" He said in a low casual tone.

Uhura looked at the patrol standing by the door. "I don't think they speak or understand English." She said. "I'm guessing they are using some kind of translating device. They don't seem to be too familiar with the human species."

"Yes. I though so too…" McCoy agreed. "The only thing I don't get is, if they don't know us, how the hell do they even have a speech converter to English?"

Uhura shook her head.

"Look." He started. "Spock won't be waking up for some time. From what I know about the stubbornness of his Vulcan mind, he will want to go after Jim. But the thing is, he suffered a pretty big head injury so I wouldn't recommend him running around..." Uhura nodded in understanding. "That leaves both you and me to do something."

"And Scotty..." she said.

"And Scotty." McCoy agreed.

"Do you still have your comm with you?" Uhura asked the doctor. McCoy nodded. "Can I try and reach him?"

The turbolift doors opened not giving McCoy any time to answer, revealing two of the creature carrying an unconscious Scotty between them.

"Scotty!" The call escaped McCoy's lips without him even thinking about it, as he lurched forward, running to help the chief engineer. With a sudden arm gesture of the alien who seemed to be in charge of the group McCoy was pushed back, falling to the floor, as if he had hit an invisible barrier that the man had set between them.

Uhura ran to help him get up as the leader pointed what looked like a phaser at them.

"Do not move." He said. And then looked at his men carrying Scotty's unconscious form. "Is he your friend?" He asked looking at the pair now standing in front of them. McCoy nodded. "Are you a healer?" He asked. McCoy nodded again, looking straight at the gun.

"Yes." He said assertively.

"Good. You can have your friend. And get back to your duty." The man said.

McCoy moved from Uhura still maintained a firm grasp on his arm from letting him get up, and putting one of Scotty's arms around his neck dragged him near to Spock and layed the Scott on the ground. He looked at Uhura who had joined him. It seemed that they wouldn't need to call Scotty after all.


	4. Plan Making

McCoy had barely had time to get his tricorder and crouch by Scotty's side when a hand faintly grabbed his arm.

"Doctor?"

McCoy looked down at Scotty's now open eyes.

"Stand still. You took a blow to the head and you passed out. I need to check you up." The doctor said, hovering his tricorder over Scotty's body with one hand as the other reached for a hypo.

"Sir. Don't stick that thing in me. We need to figure out a way to save Jim and the ship and I can't do it asleep." McCoy blinked at Scotty as his heavily accented words made their way through his brain, processing what the Scot had said.

In a normal situation, McCoy would argue that he didn't care what he thought he had to do, but he was going to light out as a candle and sleep to recover - but what they were currently living wasn't a normal situation. It was a crisis. Therefore, critical measures had to be taken.

McCoy looked at Uhura who was clutching Spock's hand on her own as if it would make him wake up faster. He noticed now that she looked tired, and that she probably was tired and the he had been so distracted by all the events that he hadn't even taken the time to give her something soothing. McCoy looked at the Scot again lying on the floor.

"Dammit!" He held a hand to Scotty helping him sit up. "But now that when this is all over I will give you a sedative so strong that you will rest for two weeks!"

Scotty's eyes widen slightly. "Aye Sir."

"So, what do you suggest we do?" McCoy asked later after he had made another round through his patients checking if everything was running smoothly and if the treatments being administered were the right ones. He had moved Spock to a corner so he could be closer to the nurses and he had asked nurse Chapel to personaly keep an eye on the Vulcan. So it was only the three of them in McCoy's office, to where they had managed to escape without their captors noticing.

"We need to get to the transporter room if we want to beam to the other ship." Scotty said.

"But how are we going to get past those guards?" Uhura said. "What about that force field they used?"

"Besides, even assuming we could get past them I think it is safe to assume that there are more on the transporter room." Scotty said.

"What about shuttle bay?" McCoy asked.

"That seems to be our best option, I would say." Scotty said. They fell silent. Passing through the alien creatures would be difficult and none of them seem to have any idea of how to do it.

"I could create a distraction." Uhura said.

"But then you would stay behind." McCoy said.

"And as soon as Spock woke up we could help you from here." She said.

"Look, I'm a doctor not a security officer! I don't know how to fight! So a ship with an engineer and a doctor don't seem to me a hell of a rescue mission!" McCoy said.

"And I'm a xenolinguist Leonard! What makes you think I know how to fight?" She asked.

"I've seen you doing it." McCoy said assertively.

"You have the academy's basic training! And the fact that you are a doctor is precisely why you need to go! What if Jim needs assistance on the spot? You need to be there! I don't speak their language, therefore I don't need to go! I can be of more assistance here especially if me staying is the only chance of you going forward!"

"I must say doctor, her reasoning is quite logic." Scotty said.

"Oh please, one Vulcan's enough! I don't need another one."

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**I really apologize for the short chapter, but this story has been slowly plotting itself in my mind and with all my coursework this semester I almost have no time to write. Even so, I really wanted to post something, so as always, I hope you enjoy it! :)**


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